Monday, December 30, 2013

Two local entrepreneurs launched a funding campaign on Kickstarter.com Friday in hopes of raising at least $18,300 to take their innovative bike light design to the next level.Business partners

John Nicolini and Kyle Palmer both have a passion for bikes, and they have brought together their engineering and manufacturing experience to create the Xlerad bike light. The Xlerad (pronounced ik-sel-RAD) can light a cyclist’s path without needing adjustments or even buttons because it features smart sensors to detect current cycling conditions. When a cyclist needs more light, the Xlerad brightens, and it dims when less light is needed.

The co-creators decided to launch their Kickstarter campaign to make minimum order quantities for a production run. While many of the components are available off the shelf, some components require custom molds and tooling.

As avid cyclists, Nicolini and Palmer had been tinkering with a smart bike light concept because they found conventional bike lights to be lacking in brightness, battery life and also hard to adjust during a ride. Palmer is a Humboldt State University graduate and an engineer and designer, while Nicolini is a mechanical designer and manufacturing guru with a bachelor’s in manufacturing technology from California State University, Chico. Using their technical skills, they developed the patent-pending technology behind Xlerad.

The Xlerad is intended for all terrain, including road, mountain and commuter routes. Its smart sensors detect riding conditions and its internal performance to adjust to the best possible lighting level for the given situation. The brightness ranges from 200 to 1,000 lumens, and there is also a fixed mode set at 400 lumens. More information about the technology behind Xlerad is available online at http://www.xlerad.com/technology.html.